Crisis-hit Spain is to charge parents for sending their children to school
with packed lunches.

A daily fee of up to €3 (£2.36) will be introduced when the new term begins next month.

The charge — which reflects “the relative cost for the use of the dining room and the supervision that entails” — has been condemned as “barbaric” by parents.

Traditionally, Spanish children have eaten hot meals in the school canteen during a two-hour lunch break for a monthly fee paid by parents that averages about €4.50 (£3.50) a day.

The economic crisis has left Spain with a 25 per cent unemployment rate and many parents have opted to save money and send their children to school with home-made lunches.

Until now, low-income families have been eligible for grants for school meals but austerity measures introduced by the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy have forced regional education boards to make stringent cuts and impose the charges.

Regional variations in the fee have further fuelled discontent. Catalonia, Spain’s north-eastern autonomous region, has said it would start charging parents up to €3 a day for sending their children to school with a lunch box, while Valencia in the east has said it is considering a levy of up to €1.45 a day.

Percival Manglano, the finance minister of the Madrid region, announced on Tuesday that it would be up to school councils to decide if and how much they wanted to charge.

In Madrid alone, the regional education board has cut €26 million in grants for school dinners and text books for the new school year.

Parent associations in Spain have condemned the fees and warn that they will hit those worst affected by the economic crisis.

Luis Carbonel, the president of the Catholic Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said the measure could force parents to skip the meal entirely. “It seems excessive to charge to fill the dining room or for use of a microwave,” he said. “It may mean that those hardest up might choose instead to feed their children big breakfasts to see them through to the evening meal at home.”

Jesus Maria Sanchez, the president of the Spanish Confederation of Associations of Parents, said: “The measure is barbaric. It means that those parents trying to save a bit of money by cutting out school meals will actually notice very little difference at all.”

Schools profit from providing meals, an income that helps to fund extras not covered in the education budget. That income has been seriously eroded by pupils bringing in packed lunches.

“It does seem harsh on the families but schools are so stretched at the moment that any further loss of income will be devastating,” said Sarah Albrecht, a primary school teacher working in the Madrid state school system.

School councils have defended the measure, arguing that the fee is necessary to pay the private contractors for canteen equipment and staff supervision.